Sales Funnel Bible — Chapter 2

Sales funnels are the most important part of your business. Get an early glimpse into how they can help your business by reading this early draft excerpted from my Sales Funnel Bible book.

Chapter 2. Fulfilling the purpose requires a structure

Businesses might be started for many reasons, and they sell different things to different people, but all businesses have one underlying purpose – to sell something at a profit. If something isn’t sold to a buyer, or if there isn’t profit (at least in the long-term) then it isn’t a business.

So if a business is to succeed, the owner needs to do one thing: Learn to fulfill the ultimate purpose more effectively. He or she must learn to sell more, and to sell at a higher profit. The more this becomes the focus of the business owner, the more successful the business can become.

But how can anyone know what to do in order to sell more? If you search for this kind of information online, there are only a bazillion things you could be doing! We are bombarded by business-growing opportunities online -– from ever-changing search engine optimization techniques to the latest and greatest social media to tried-and-true conventional marketing methods to the flashiest success stories that we need to emulate. Which business-growing activities should you start first? How do you know if it will be effective in your business? How do you actually deploy some of those ideas? And where do you get the time to do more?

Business owners are bombarded with options and choosing from among that giant field is an impossible task. That’s because business owners are missing an essential piece of information to help them make these decisions.

Rather than running to the glut of business-growth experts and gurus, business owners need to start by looking inward at their own business, and to a very specific part of their business.

Every business has the same purpose – to sell something at a profit. And at the most basic level, every business does some similar things to fulfill that ultimate purpose: Every business markets their offering to attract potential buyers, then they present their offering to those potential buyers, and when some of those buyers agree to buy, there’s an exchange of money. Every business does it slightly differently, and probably uses different terminology, but that process is the same – basically marketing then selling then transacting and delivery.

This basic series of steps is a structure; it’s a framework. It’s a methodology by which every business fulfills its ultimate purpose. It’s very similar to a skeleton: A skeleton provides structure and a framework to the human body. A strong skeleton contributes to healthier living. And if you were to peel off all of my skin and muscle, and remove all of my organs (please don’t!) then my skeleton would look a lot like every other skeleton out there.

Likewise, this framework for how a business fulfills its ultimate purpose provides the structure of a business. A strong structure leads to a healthier business. And at the most basic level, all businesses have very similar structures – it’s only after you add the details that each business becomes unique.

So smart business owners study this structure – this framework or methodology – that helps their business fulfill its ultimate purpose. They understand how it works. They learn to make it stronger. And in doing so, they help their business sell more at a higher profit.

This structure is called the “sales funnel”.

This chapter is excerpted from an early draft of my book. Comments and constructive criticisms are welcome. Please be aware that the chapter content and chapter order may change by publication.